


On Thin Ice

by Tilltheendwilliwrite



Series: A World of Wings: ABO Fiction [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dom/sub Undertones, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fantasy, Light Dom/sub, Not wolf dynamics, please see introduction for further information, world of wings fic, тэг заменён на Don't copy to another site
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 22:43:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19094545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tilltheendwilliwrite/pseuds/Tilltheendwilliwrite
Summary: (world of Wings: ABO Fiction) Modern day AU (read the introduction - first of the world of wings series - for more info on this specific world)Tony Stark, a Warlord Alpha and self-proclaimed genius, working his way through his fifth masters, is moderately happy with his rather unexciting life. He works, he creates, he helps where he can, but life started out hard, forcing him to create a shell that keeps everyone at bay. Only Rhodes, his best friend and beta, really understands him.Then, fate takes a hand.Fable Rogers, omega queen and tiny beauty, skates into his circle thanks to her hockey jock brother. When his inner beast sits up and howls MINE can Tony come to terms with the damage done to the one he would cherish above all others in time, or will the devil of her past roar into their lives and shred what could have been?





	On Thin Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thefanficfaerie (CapandIronMansGurl)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapandIronMansGurl/gifts).



> Written for @thefanficfaerie’s #disneyquotechallege. (It appears you’re getting another series because I have zero self-control.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: language

* * *

 

Tony didn’t know what he was doing here, freezing his nads off at six in the morning, while Rhodes bounced on his toes beside him, stupidly excited about… well, he still wasn’t sure what. It was too damn early after being up too damn late for this kind of shit.

“C’mon, man,” he whined, shifting back and forth on his cold feet. “What the hell are we doing here?” He jacked his chin toward the ice rink where they were currently standing behind the glass panels, watching the Zamboni make new ice after the university's hockey team had finished cutting it up and digging holes during practice.

Not being a fan of hockey, ice, or the cold, Tony huddled deeper into the collar of his jacket. The arena always carried the scents of too many alphas all jacked up on pheromones after spending too much time slamming each other into the boards. Sure they used protective gear, but he had too much respect for his lovely, shiny feathers to ever put his wings in that kind of danger.

“You’ll see. It’s going to be completely worth it. I swear!” Rhodes promised when Tony shot him a glare.

“Dammit, man! I’m tired, and I’m hungry. And my nose is froze. And my ears are froze. And my toes are froze. The least you could have done was bring me coffee and a bagel!” he groaned as the Zamboni made its way out past them.

Rhodes only smirked. “You’ll thank me. I know you will.”

“I’m expecting apology breakfast when I don’t,” Tony muttered and shoved his hands in his pockets, thankful he’d had the foresight to put on a thicker coat.

It was winter after all, but he hadn’t expected to freeze his ass off outside only to come inside and freeze it off some more. If they stood here any longer, he was going to wrap his wings around himself to hold in some heat even if it did make him look like a damn pansy.

“I’ve never known an alpha to be this much of a whiny bitch,” Rhodes snickered, nodding with his chin toward the woman just getting on the ice, cutting off the sharp reply Tony would have given the beta had he been able to speak past the lump that had formed in his throat.

“Fuck me…” whispered from his lips instead.

She glided out on the shining surface with such little effort, wings like a Great Blue Heron, pale blue secondaries that became sapphire blue primaries, beautifully offset by pale blonde nearly platinum hair. Delicate, refined features, a thin, fit body with clearly muscular thighs hidden by the short skirt that fluttered around them. She was covered from wrists to ankles in a white leotard broken up only by the floaty fabric fluttering in the same blue as her primaries. She was a winter queen gliding in graceful circles, stretching arms and legs, warming up on the ice.

Tony sat on his wings, lurched to his feet, shuffled them out of his way and sat again, forgetting all about his cold feet, and ignoring the snickers coming from his best friend and beta.

She skated by, bringing with her the scent that came when fall gave way to winter when clouds gathered full of snow and dropped the bottom out of the thermometer.

The world became washed in red, everything a haze as Tony’s heart skipped and jumped and his fangs ached, suddenly too long and pressing into his lip. _Mine_ sang in his soul. A soft growl rumbled in his chest.

“Down boy,” Rhodes murmured.

“Bite me,” Tony hissed.

“I think you’d rather bite her,” he snickered.

“Who is she? Where’d she come from? How the hell did you see her first?” The rapid-fire questions went unanswered when music began to flow from the speakers.

She looked up to whoever was running the controls and smiled, added a little wave, and began doing things on skates Tony hadn’t known were even possible. The twists and turns were sharp and fast, her wings stretching and swinging, helping with her balance.

It was clear by how she kept standing up, shifting out of moves, only making half-hearted jumps, she was still warming up, but Tony was utterly fascinated. She was grace in motion. Elegant. Poised.

Then, she glided to the center of the ice, looked up at the booth where someone was running the music, and nodded. The current track cut off, dropping them all into silence in which Tony could hear his heart pound in his ears.

She bent at the knees, her body curling in on itself, arms wrapping around her chest as if in distress, mirrored by the look on her face as her wings came down around her, skimming out over the ice, a cape of blue.

The quiet piano began, the song familiar, Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. How he knew that Tony wasn't sure, but he shoved the wayward thought aside.

She waited in that crushed, crouched, defeated posture, rising when that sultry, pain-filled voice began to sing. She lifted up; her face a mask of pain, her skate a scrape over the ice as she turned a tight circle, hands rising over her head.

He’d never seen such hands on a woman, long, tapered, storybook hands that told tales with nothing more than a twist of her wrist. She let her wings flag out behind her, flutter in the wind of her passing, her feathers as soft as the skirt around her hips.

She danced on the ice, turns and bends and graceful glides, invoking sorrow and sadness and loss with each quick step of blade, each lift of hands or flick of wrist.

When she swung into a spin that saw her bending backward, her wings skimming the ice, one hand pressed to her chest while the other twisted skyward, a skate blade lifted dangerously close to her head, his breath caught. When she spun out of it, white coated the tips of her primaries. It was like diamonds collected and sparkled all along the edge.

He was mesmerized.

She never looked up, never looked at him, her eyes downcast. It was clear the song held significance for her, her icy dance beautiful and painful and somehow still so full of strength. She turned and glided backward, her speed much faster. He watched in both awe and fear when she kicked up into the air, arms tight, wings tight, and landed after multiple fast revolutions onto one foot.

“Shit!” Tony hissed softly, impressed at the power of such a move when her wings _weren’t_ involved.

Her incredible dance came to an end in the same place it began, center ice, her hands lifted in surrender and acceptance.

For four minutes, she moved like a spirit over the ice. Four minutes of the greatest thing Tony had ever seen in his life. Four minutes of such absolute peace it took him twenty seconds to realize his brain - overactive to the extreme and never quiet - had gone silent.

It took another ten to hear the screaming, clapping, whistling that was happening to his left.

Tony looked over and scowled finding Barnes, Wilson, and Rogers - hockey jocks but decent people - standing at the gate cheering her on. Her hands dropped, and she smiled, big and beautiful before laughing, relaxing, and skating closer.

Rogers leaned over the gate to wrap his arms around her waist and lift her off her skates when she closed her arms around his neck. She squealed when he wiggled her back and forth, her feet kicking up before she laid a smacking kiss on his cheek.

“What the damn hell?” Tony muttered, rising to his feet to jam his hands back in his pockets.

“Take a breath, brother,” Rhodes murmured. “She’s his sister.”

“Who in the… how in the… who decided Rogers could have a sister that sweet?” he asked, tearing his eyes away to gape at Rhodes.

Rhodes only laughed at him before climbing to his feet and motioning for them to make their way around the arena. “Come on. Steve wants to introduce you.”

“What?” Had the heavens just opened and the Gods smiled upon him? “Why?”

His beta only arched a brow. “You don’t want to meet her?”

“Stop laughing at me, dipshit. Yes, I want to meet her.” If his secondary biology had anything to say about it, they already would have, center ice, shortly after the music ended.

Rhodes laughed, drawing the attention of the four people across the arena. Ignoring him, Tony made his way around and down the stairs, nodding to Wilson when the beta shifted out of the way.

“Stark. Good to see you.” Rogers held out his hand, his grin huge.

“Rogers.” He shook it and nodded to Barnes.

The two alphas, Rogers and Barnes, framed the woman between them, both radiating protection and affection like nuclear reactors. She’d stepped off the ice and stood twisting her hands together, nerves and excitement thick around her. A gold wing and a black one protected her stunning pair, allowing Tony to sum up the situation quickly.

Rogers equalled brother, but so did Barnes. It was clear she’d grown up protected and likely spoiled by both men, but then they would have been stupid not to cherish the tiny queen between them.

Even on her skates, she could barely look him in the chin, and he had the ridiculous urge to find out if he could fit her in his pocket.

“Rhodes,” Rogers was saying. “Thanks for getting him here this early.”

“You could have asked me yourself, Rogers.”

He rolled his eyes. “We all know you’re not a morning person, Tony. Had I asked you would have said no. It was easier to get Rhodes to do it. We all knew he could coerce and trick you here easier than I could.”

They chuckled at his expense. He didn’t mind, not with the woman looking at him with eyes that reflected the colour of her wings. “Had I known it was to meet such a lovely queen, I wouldn’t have complained so much.”

She blushed and looked down.

“Watch it, Stark,” Barnes growled, his cybernetic arm humming.

“Don’t start with me, Sparky.” Tony had designed and built that arm. He’d damn well take it back if Barnes tried to use it against him.

“Sparky?” she asked, smirking up at Barnes. “I thought he called you Tin Man?”

He liked her even more now when Barnes snorted and rolled his eyes. “He let Lang play with the circuits after I expressly told him it was a bad idea. Sparky came naturally when the wires shorted every time he moved.”

She giggled. He preened, unable to stop the ruffle in his wings, red and black and gold feathers twitching.

“Okay,” Rogers eyed him curiously. “Before things get out of hand, Stark this is my sister Fable. Fae, this is Tony Stark who I was telling you about.”

“But why were you telling her about me?” Tony asked, grateful but still confused.

Fable took a step forward, neither man shifting to follow - surprisingly - and held out her hand. Her scent flooded his nose and brought the sweet tone of _omega_ along with it, making him momentarily light-headed before he reached to take her hand - soft, warm, stronger than it looked, and strangely calloused - in his. He didn't shake it, just held it, old world charm in the move when he laid his left over the top and brought her a step closer. Had he been more sure one or both of her two protectors wouldn't have come for his head, he would have brought her knuckles to his lips and pulled out a little of the French his nannies had drilled into his brain as a fledgling. A soft " _Enchanté_ " could work wonders when meeting a woman.

A soft pink dusted her cheeks, but she didn't pull away. “I was a fan before Buck came home with his arm, now I’m an even bigger one. I’ve read all your papers, Tony. May I call you Tony?”

She could call him anything she wanted as long as he got to call her _Mine_. “Of course.” Still lost, he looked at Rogers for an explanation.

“Fable recently moved back to finish her masters in engineering from MIT. I figured who better to show her around and help her get settled than you? You practically live in the department.”

True, but then he’d built it, he may as well use the damn thing. After all, he was finishing his latest masters himself. He had four now. No, five, but usually preferred inventing to study. After all, with his genius level intellect, he could be teaching any number of courses at this university. He just didn’t want to. Far too boring.

"I'm honoured," he said, smiling down at the petite omega.

"I have to finish my skate, but…" Fable bit her lip, catching the corner between her teeth. "Would you like to have coffee with me after? I need forty-five minutes. You're welcome to stay and watch."

Forty-five minutes in which his mind could be silent? Hell yeah! "I'd love to."

"Great," she breathed, her smile bright but voice a little timid.

Did he make her nervous? He didn't mind as long as it was only a little and curled a lick of his _Will_ around her. It widened her eyes and paled her face.

Barnes and Rogers shifted, two more alpha _Wills_ rising when Fable stepped back, pulling her hand away quickly.

"I- I'll see you in a bit," she mumbled, nearly stumbling when she pushed through the spread wings of her two alpha protectors to escape back onto the ice.

"Stark," Rogers rumbled, a hint of red in his eyes. "Walk with me."

Tony arched a brow, her reaction curious. Her brother, however, was easy to read. Anger. Guilt. Fear. 

Interesting. 

It wasn't Tony; he knew that much. His actions with the petite queen were nothing but polite.

He shot a glance and shake of his head at Rhodes when the beta arched a brow, then followed Rogers up into the stands where the big, golden alpha eventually sat and motioned for Tony to join him.

"What's going on, Rogers?" he asked, settling slowly into the seat, his eyes drawn back to Fable.

"She's fragile, Tony."

He frowned and glanced at Steve. He'd tutored Steve in calculus; it was how they met and formed their strange acquaintance. He would not have said they were friends, but friend adjacent. They had too few commonalities between them to be friends. But he liked and respected Steve, liked him more when Steve had come seeking help for his best friend.

Barnes was a dick, but a good guy. He'd been short-tempered, broken and bitter about the loss of his arm when Tony had met him three years ago. But, after a year and a half of planning, building, and generally figuring shit out, Tony had designed the first ever functioning cybernetic arm. His research and designs - all patented, of course - had made him a fortune and became the first 'arm' of Stark Industries.

At thirty-three, Tony was a billionaire, adding to his family's already substantial fortune, and he'd had no qualms about rehabbing the university's science department. He was still a student here and wasn't about to use subpar equipment.

Wilson was the beta that ran circles around them both. A psych major, he could talk Barnes and Rogers around in ways Tony couldn't even fathom. They had a unique dynamic in their small weyr, but somehow, they made it work. Wilson had been instrumental in helping Barnes adjust and come to terms with his prosthetic.

Tony only had Rhodes. It was a weyr of two, but it also worked. Though, looking at Fable, he could imagine it expanding.

"What does that mean?"

Steve sighed, his discomfort growing. "She was… abused in California."

His eyes washed red. "By who?" Tony asked, cold and deadly.

"Someone I thought was a friend. Someone I trusted to watch over her. A beta I once considered a brother. Retribution was swift and damn near deadly." A smirk Tony could almost term wicked crossed Rogers' lips. "Bucky busted that plate in his hand on the guy's face."

"Is it safe?" he asked softly. There were different rules for Warlord Alphas, he would know being one himself, but there were still laws and people to enforce them. "Do I need to make some phone calls?" He liked both men too much to see them in trouble, and trouble for Barnes would mean difficulty for Rogers as the omega was his sister. Throwing money around to grease a few palms would be easy enough if it meant smoothing their way.

"What?" Steve sounded shocked. "No, but thank you. Fable was… emotionally damaged enough that the adjudicators cleared us both."

"Both?" Tony smirked.

"I broke his legs. Bucky busted his face. We damn near killed him. It was close. He was charged with omega abuse and won't be released for a very, very long time after he recovers."

Tony nodded, his secondary nature appeased, and turned his attention back to Fable. "How bad?"

"It never got physical, he didn't take it that far, but he would use his Will against her simply because he could." He rubbed a hand over his face. "I didn't know, but I could hear the stress growing in her voice every time I spoke with her. She was living in his garage apartment. I thought she'd be safe. She was supposed to be safe, dammit!" The seat of the chair beside him cracked when Steve drove his fist into it. "It was the _only_ reason I agreed to her going to school so far away. Instead, we fly out for a surprise visit and find her subjugated on the floor like a dog, wings bound, wearing a damn slave collar like it's the tenth century again!"

Tony had no words to describe how angry he was. He wanted to rip, tear, shred, maim, _kill_ ! Every cell in his body screamed at him to find who'd done such a heinous thing to _his_ omega and stop their heart, preferably by hand.

"She didn't tell you?" It was the only thing that didn't make sense.

"He used fear and pressure to make her submit. When we found her, she wasn't living in the garage apartment, but in a room in the basement of his house. He'd driven her down, Tony, so deep. It took a month to bring her back. She went to school and saw her friends and acted like nothing was wrong. Then went home to every omega's nightmare."

"Fuck!" He turned his face away.

"She's fragile, but she's really damn strong too. Once the month passed and her head cleared, once she figured out she was home, with us, and safe, her spunk came back. She's doing good, but I'd feel better knowing she had you to turn to if another comes sniffing around. Brock was a shithead. She doesn't need that right now. You two speak the same language. I'm hoping that helps her… trust again."

"Dammit, Rogers…" he sighed. "You're putting me in a really difficult position here."

"Why? Because she's yours?"

Tony snapped his head around so fast his neck cracked. "How in the damn hell?"

Steve smirked and chuckled. "I've known you four years, Stark. I've watched you chase a shit ton of beta skirt across campus but never once did you even look at an omega. Then Fable steps off the ice, and you preen like a peacock? Yeah. Subtle."

"You don't… mind?"

He shook his head. "You're a good guy, Tony. Ninety percent of the time I don't understand the words coming out of your mouth, but I've never once heard any woman speak badly about you. I trusted you with Fable before this. I trust you with her more now."

Stunned, Tony asked, "Why?"

"Because an alpha who can look at an omega and think _Mine_ isn't going to do anything to jeopardize her." He pushed to his feet, unfolding long legs and ridiculous yards of muscle. "Though you're gonna have your work cut out for you."

"I like a challenge."

"Yeah," Steve grinned. "I know you do."

He patted Tony's shoulder and walked away, leaving him to ponder all these things while watching Fable skate. When Rhodes sat down beside him, Tony didn't even blink.

"So?"

"She's had a tough go. Bad alpha." Bad alpha was a code they'd used as kids for when Tony's dad would fly off the handle and rage. "Though the guy was, apparently, a beta." He must have just missed the mark of alpha to force Fable to submit. That shouldn't have been possible for a beta.

"Shit, man. She gonna be okay?"

Tony nodded. He would allow no other outcome. "How'd you meet her first? How'd you _know_?" he asked, shooting Rhodes a frown.

"Please," he rolled his eyes. "You may have looked at her and had your instincts roar, but I'm your damn beta. Like I couldn't see the same?" He scoffed a snort and crossed his arms.

Tony smirked, the action baring one overly long fang. "Of course you did. Sorry, man." Rhodes nodded when Tony gently tapped him on the arm with his fist. "How'd you meet her?"

"Unlike some people who spend hours tinkering with his robots at night, some of us actually sleep and enjoy early mornings. I was out for a run - don't snort at me, I like running, and came in for coffee. She was in the lobby with Rogers."

It made sense. The little cafe that did a booming business during games was always open for the team post-practice to see the guys caffeinated before classes. That Rhodes liked to get his fix here didn't surprise Tony.

"When he asked if I thought you'd be willing to be Fable's mentor, I didn't think you'd mind."

Tony ignored the scent of _smug_ coming from his friend and kept his eyes on Fable. "No," he murmured. "I don't mind."

He didn't mind at all.

  



End file.
